The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

first century A.D., the statue presents itself with a yoke, whereas in another, by an
anonymous poet, asks for one:
Take off from my neck, husbandman, the collar,
and free me from the iron furrow-cutter; for Myron
did not make my bronze into flesh, but his art gave
me the aspect of being alive, so that often I even
wish to low. He did not, however, let me go to
work, but tied me to the base.
(Philippus, Anth. Pal. 9.742) [140]
Let someone attach me to the solid plough and
put a yoke on my neck, for as far as depends on
thy art, Myron, I will plough.
(Anonymous, Anth. Pal. 9.729) [22]
In both epigrams, the statue speaks to the viewer directly. In both, the statue presents
itself, as if it were alive, by acting both as a speaking object and an animal. In the first,
the statue commands the viewer or reader, who is a husbandman, to free it from its yoke,
emphasizing, therefore, an attribute of its appearance; it also attributes its aliveness to
Myron, and announces its placement on a base, thus admitting its reality as a work of art,
while declaring its wish to act naturally, namely, to low. In this way, the epigram blurs
the line between image and reality. The same situation is seen in the second epigram,
where the statue identifies itself as a work of Myron, while addressing him directly, as if
it were alive. The statue declares its aliveness by asking Myron to place a yoke on its
neck. Its image, therefore, contrasts with that of the yoked animal it was shown to be in
the first epigram. This evidence suggests that details, such as the presence or absence of
a yoke, were variations of the basic subject that Myron’s statue was thought to represent,
and did not affect the high value placed on the lifelikeness of the statue, which was
conceived as aliveness. Several epigrams, therefore, that celebrate Myron’s cow offer a
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